


Twist the Knife

by OneStepShort



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Addresses a lot of the fucked up things about the Jedi Order, Basically it's "What happens to Padawans during the war if they lose their masters?", Definitely an Ongoing Work, Follows a lot of episode arcs but some canon divergence, It's also a "What happens when Jedi start losing their restraint?, It's gonna be a fun time, Organs may be ruptured, Scratch that maybe a lot of canon divergence, Taking a lot of liberties here with the force
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22873765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OneStepShort/pseuds/OneStepShort
Summary: When Padawan Learner Kal El-maa loses her master, she must forge her own path during the Clone Wars. As she loses her faith in the Jedi Order, she discovers new power in the Force, and grapples with her place in a galaxy at war.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Cracked

**Author's Note:**

> Figured it would be fun to put on some Star Wars Content, with the new Season coming. I'm hoping by sharing this I'll be motivated to actually finish it :).

Kal sensed Dooku before she saw him. 

People say that darkness is the easy route, that turning is what happens when someone loses their restraint, their discipline. All those warnings the Jedi would tell to keep their pupils on the straight and narrow: Keep your anger in check, or you’ll turn to the dark side. Avoid attachment, or you’ll turn to the dark side, it always made it seem as though any one of them would fall into temptation at the slightest tap, that years of training would evaporate with one act of passion. 

The reality, however, was much less binary. Most people lived their whole lives in a gray area. It took considerable effort to stay in the light and keep their Force so pure and uncorrupted. On the flip side, it also took effort to corrupt someone so fully they burned black and hot like coal. 

Creating a Jedi took more than just meditation, and to create a Situ took more than just anger. That power came from torture, despair, hate that drove to the brink of insanity. That abuse left a stain on the spirit, and Dooku had one so deep Kal could almost taste the bitterness of it. 

She drew her saber, the light blue tinge of it reflecting in her eyes. “Master?” She asked, awaiting her instructions. She had faced every kind of scum the war had drudged up, but they all paled in comparison to Count Dooku. 

Master Tosin was an unconventional sort. She focused the force in ways some Jedi called peculiar and others called dangerous. Master Tosin could make the wind sing, make fire dance, or turn blood to ice. She could sense a clone’s wounds and understand how best to heal them, before their armor ever came off. And when she first saw Kal, she sensed the potential of someone to follow in her footsteps, to change the way the Jedi used their power. 

It kept them isolated from the others. They were never kicked out of the Order, especially since they were often successful in battle, but there was always a whisper of it: “They might as well be witches,” Master Luminara had said once. Luminara, who still made her Padawan bow to acknowledge her, as if she was nothing more than an underling. Master Tosin’s approach was less...traditional than that. 

“He found us,” Tosin ignited her own saber, the green so pale it was almost yellow. She knew she wouldn’t be using it much. Dooku’s dueling skills far outweighed that of most jedi. He was trained by Master Yoda, of course. But he leaned on it in combat more than force wielding. That, Tosin hoped, was where she’d be able to make a dent. 

She couldn’t fight him alone, Tosin knew that. But she also knew that if she watched her Padawan die, it just might be the end of her. 

She looked over to Kal, looked into her young eyes, filled with so much trust, ready to follow her Master to the ends of the earth. Tosin wished she’d left her on Coruscant, found some way to break that faith her apprentice had in her and set off on this mission alone. But then again, Coruscant wasn’t safe anymore, given what she knew about the Chancellor. She didn’t know where Kal could be safe, if not by her side. 

Tosin hadn’t told Kal much, which was unusual for her. Only that the council wouldn’t listen to her and they needed to go to the libraries on Teth to learn about the Sith. Everything else, about the true identity of Palpatine, would only endanger her further. 

“Kal, listen to me very carefully.” Tosin scammed their surroundings. Dooku would reveal himself, any moment. “I’ll keep him occupied. You run back to the ship.” 

“You can’t fight him alone,” Kal protested.

“You should listen to your padawan, Master Tosin.” Dooku’s regal accent reverberated through the clearing. The Count stepped toward them, hands behind his back, looking as calm and distinguished as ever. 

“Kal --” 

Tosin’s neck cracked, tilting her head ninety degrees. Her body fell limp into the short grass. 

“No!” Kal ran at Dooku, his hand still raised from the quick manipulation of the Force. He cast her aside with another wave. 

Her lightsaber flew out of her hand, landing next to her as she collapsed. 

Dooku walked over and put a foot on her chest, pinning her to the ground. Kal cried out in pain. 

“A terrible loss, your Master.” Dooku shook his head. “So well tuned to the force. Unfortunately, connections work on both sides. As she wielded it, now it...breaks her.” 

Kal set a strike of her arm to Dooku’s ankle, right on the bone to give it the most pain. He barely reacted. 

“She needed to die. You, on the other hand, could still prove useful.” He bent over to pick up Kal’s lightsaber. Kal reached her hand out, focusing the Force on the blade. She could feel its crystal, humming with energy. She could ignite it, but it was facing the wrong way. To harm him, she would have to turn it around. 

Dooku hesitated. “You do not have enough time to kill me, young one. I, on the other hand, could run you through in the next instant.” 

Kal clenched her fist. With a snap like a gunshot, a fissure opened in her lightsaber. A fizzle of electricity came off the metal. As the crystal cracked, she felt a sudden pain in her heart, and not just from the pressure Dooku applied. 

“You’re not getting it,” she hissed out. 

To her surprise, Dooku smiled approvingly. He stretched out his arm and touched the girl’s forehead, putting her into a slumber before she could flinch away. 

With the padawan unconscious and ready to be transported, Dooku picked up her destroyed saber and pried out the two halves of her Kyber crystal. To break something so sacred was almost heretical for a jedi. He put the pieces into the front pocket of her tunic and buttoned it closed, securing them. 

“Keep your crystal, child,” he said. “One day, you’ll make it bleed.”


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

Kal woke up in a cage, one of the Zygerian variety that used interlocking hexagons instead of bars. Their culture had such a careful attention to pattern and geometry, the architecture would be almost beautiful if it wasn’t built on slave labor. 

Instinctively, she reached for her lightsaber. She cursed under her breath as she came up empty handed. 

She felt the ship break atmosphere, the shake of turbulence sliding her into the side wall of the ship. She did her best to dampen the collision with the force, but she still felt her bones rattle along with the cage. 

She needed a way to get out. Alive or otherwise.

She was unguarded. It made sense, that Dooku didn’t consider her a threat, but he wasn’t on the ship, not that she could sense. One would think he’d at least take a precaution. 

Am I really not worth one battle droid? Kal let out an exasperated sigh. The metal wouldn’t budge. 

There was one option. 

Her gaze went towards the ship’s bay doors. Their altitude was dropping by the second. 

That’s a stupid option. 

“Worse case scenario,” she muttered, “is I’m dead.” 

Well, considering the alternative probably involved torture, mutilation, and brainwashing by a Sith Lord, maybe death was a best case. 

Another jolt tilted the hull, causing her to slide right into the bay doors. She could put a hand on them, through the gaps in the metal. 

“Don’t try it,” Dooku’s voice rang out. 

She jerked her head back, looking for him, startled, because she should have seen him coming.

There was no one there. 

She spread a palm over the seam between the doors, focusing the Force with all the strength she had. 

“See you in Hell,” she told the empty ship.

The doors opened, and her cage slipped out, plunging into the open sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> She's a short update - Trying to write more given the whole Shelter in Place situation. We'll get some familiar faces in the next chapter.


End file.
